Just say no to another secret tax hike to bail out – Latest News
Here we go again: Gov. Kathy Hochul and state lawmakers are secretly transferring to ratchet up taxes as soon as more, hitting giant firms in and across the metropolis by way of the “payroll mobility tax.”
The purpose: to raise $2 billion for the MTA money pit as half of this 12 months’s price range.
Yet a lot of the tax will come from the pockets of average New Yorkers, with firms — people who don’t flee, anyway — raising costs and holding down staff’ wages to cowl the new prices.
Haven’t heard about this? That’s by design: Lawmakers are hashing out the deal with the gov behind closed doorways and refuse to talk about it publicly.
That approach Albany can impose the tax as a fait accompli and keep away from a public backlash that might block it.
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After all, Hochul & Co. certainly know voters are sick of being squeezed, time and again, to bail out the MTA.
Remember: This $2 billion tax hike could be on prime of the $1 billion or so a 12 months the gov hopes congestion-pricing tolls herald for the company.
The excuse: the need to plug a $33 billion gap within the MTA’s $68 billion capital price range.
Yet Albany already raised the “mobility tax” simply two years in the past, fares are rising again in August and the MTA acquired $15 billion further from the feds during COVID.
Recall, too, that Albany created the mobility tax in 2009 to (supposedly) put the company on a firm fiscal footing. Ha!
And don’t count on any new tax or different income stream to be a lasting repair.
Because the MTA, with its $20 billion price range, isn’t short of money; it merely spends an excessive amount of.
When will enough be enough?
If solely Hochul & Co. would exert the identical form of vitality on holding down MTA prices as on plotting secret new tax hikes.
They can tackle labor and demand on work-rule adjustments to save a bundle. Get higher (cheaper) construction contracts and improve management.
They can prioritize the present system, quite than look to fund overpriced upgrades — just like the 1.8-mile Second Avenue Subway extension that, at $7.7 billion, would be the costliest per-mile subway build-out in historical past.
Meanwhile, New Yorkers ought to simply say no to this umpteenth stealth tax hike.
Before lawmakers ram it by way of with no one wanting.
